page_title: PAVE PAWS
section_title: Replacement
hierarchical_section_title: PAVE PAWS / Replacement
caption_attribution_description: Solid-State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS) at Clear Air Force Station
context_page_description: PAVE PAWS is an elaborate Cold War early warning radar and computer system developed in 1980 to "detect and characterize a sea-launched ballistic missile attack against the United States". With the first solid-state phased array deployed, the system at the perimeter of the contiguous United States used a pair of Raytheon AN/FPS-115 radar sets at each site as part of the United States Space Surveillance Network. One system was sold to Taiwan and is still in service with that island nation.
context_section_description: The Solid State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS) began replacing PAVE PAWS when the first AN/FPS-115 face was taken off-line for the radar upgrade.  New Raytheon AN/FPS-123 Early Warning Radars became operational in 19xx (Beale) and 19xx (Cape Cod) in each base's existing PAVE PAWS "Scanner Building". RAF Fylingdales, UK and Clear Air Force Station, Alaska BMEWS stations became SSPARS radar stations when their respective AN/FPS-126 radar (3 faces) and 2001 Raytheon AN/FPS-120 Solid State Phased Array Radar became operational.  In 2007, 100 owners/trustees of amateur radio repeaters in the 420 to 450 MHz band near AN/FPS-123 radars were notified to lower their power output to mitigate interference, and AN/FPS-123s were part of the Air Force Space Surveillance System by 2009.  The Beale AN/FPS-123 was upgraded to a Raytheon AN/FPS-132 Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR), circa 2012, with capabilities to operate in the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) ABM system—the Beale UEWR included Avionics, Transmit-Receive modules,  Receiver Exciter / Test Target Generator, Beam Steering Generator, Signal Processor, and other changes.  After additional UEWR installations for GMD at Thule Site J and the UK (contracted 2003), a 2012 ESD/XRX Request for Information for replacement, and remote operation, of the remaining "PAVE PAWS/BMEWS/PARCS systems" at Cape Cod, Alaska, and North Dakota was issued.  The Alaska AN/FPS-132 was contracted in fall 2012 and in 2013, the U.S. announced a plan to sell an AN/FPS-132 to Qatar.
caption: The AN/FPS-120 at Clear AFS, Alaska, was completed in 2001 with portions of the AN/FPS-115 radar from Eldorado AFS that closed in 1995, e.g., both "transmitter/receiver arrays", as well as some "cabinets and computers"[59]-- saving $140 million (the deployment cost $106 million).
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